Mr. 600 Immediately, talk fired up regarding Witten's potential Hall of Fame possibilities. Kind of odd talk when you consider that he's 28 years old. Which seems completely insane. Seems like he's been in the league for 15 years.
Is Witten a Hall of Famer?
No.
I realize I run the risk of pissing off a ton of Cowboys' fans. But that's fine. Witten is not a Hall of Famer, and I believe he has a long, long way to go to even be in the discussion.
Frankly, I don't have a good reason.
Statistically, there's little argument that Witten will amass plenty of impressive stats. Assuming he stays healthy, he'll go another five or six years at 65+ catches and 900+ yards per season. That'd be close to 1,000 catches and about 11,000 yards. Impressive.
Of course, by the ends of their careers, the likes of Kellen Winslow Jr., Todd Heap, Chris Cooley, Antonio Gates, Vernon Davis and Marcedes Lewis could have pretty big numbers themselves. Are you putting in a dozen tight ends into the NFL Hall of Fame?
Witten is as "really good" as any NFL player in history has ever been "really good." I'd daresay that Witten's "really really good."
But he's never been great. Case in point, he has just one All Pro designation in his career and chances are he won't get many more, if any.
The Hall of Fame is for "great" players, not really good ones. And with that in mind, it might not ever matter how many stats Witten piles up. He might not ever be Hall of Fame worthy.
Never has a Cowboys fan during a winning, playoff season said, "Man, where would this team be without Jason Witten?"
Never. Ever. It's never happened. When the Cowboys got good during Witten's tenure, it coincided with the ascension of Tony Romo and Terrell Owens' time of putting forth one of the best years for a Cowboys' receiver.
I hate to badmouth Witten. He's clearly extremely good at playing football and he does quite a number of things well.
Our association and proximity to the Cowboys skews our view of Witten. We see the sweet, tough, corn-fed white kid from Tennessee that works hard and takes the game seriously. He brings his "lunch pail" and leaves his heart on the field every week. No doubt about this.
But there are tons of players that do the same thing. Tons. It's just not all are as talented as Witten and working hard and loving the game doesn't get you into the Hall of Fame.
Has Witten ever been transcendent? Has he carried a team on his back to the playoffs? Does he have a defining moment outside of running against the Philadelphia Eagles without his helmet?
Also, today's pass catchers have the luxury of playing during and era that encourages the offensive player. From helmet-to-helmet hits, pass interference and other rule changes, it's almost too hard not to have a good year if you are able to run on two legs. Comparing Witten's stats with those of Shannon Sharpe, Ozzie Newsome, Mike Ditka and Jackie Smith can't be done. It's apples and prostitutes. No comparison.
We can like Witten. That's easy. But any notion of Witten being a Hall of Famer is pure homer vigor and is not based on the play on the field.
